Welcome to DBSTalk

Welcome to DBSTalk. Our community covers all aspects of video delivery solutions including: Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS), Cable Television, and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). We also have forums to discuss popular television programs, home theater equipment, and internet streaming service providers. Members of our community include experts who can help you solve technical problems, industry professionals, company representatives, and novices who are here to learn.

Like most online communities you must register to view or post in our community. Sign-up is a free and simple process that requires minimal information. Be a part of our community by signing in or creating an account. The Digital Bit Stream starts here!

Ooh, a cheap shot and an eye roll emoticon. Good job, sir. And besides, the moment someone starts a post in another area, they get immediately directed to another thread by someone else already started. So, therefore you can't talk about it in both places.

Since we're discussing here:

TWC Cable in NYC has already been confirmed to drop Current from it's lineup this hour.

...what does TWC have to do with either provider discussed on this forum? AVSforum has a thread that tracks adds and drops from all providers. Maybe you should try there.

Ooh, a cheap shot and an eye roll emoticon. Good job, sir. And besides, the moment someone starts a post in another area, they get immediately directed to another thread by someone else already started. So, therefore you can't talk about it in both places.

OK - reality check time.

1) There was no cheap shot at anyone - you chose to post the very same post in 2 different threads to make your point.

2) Your point was based on inaccuracy - no one other than the original poster decided where to post their new thread.

3) Nothing precludes anyone from having the very same thread/discussion in the Dish area.

4) There was a duplicate thread posted after the first one started. That's not the first (nor will it be the last ) time it's happened. The general protocol in those situations is to inform others of the earlier thread already started out of courtesy. Typically as well - the moderators close the second one thereafter OR combine them. This is a common practice on websites containing discussion boards.

I'd love to hear from those of us who have international dishes, who have actually watched Al Jazeera English on MHz Worldview, channel 2183. Two newscasts a day are carried, one hour at six p.m. and another early in the morning.

Personally, I find a stunning lack of bias in the AJE newscasts that I have seen. Perhaps I don't recognize the bias because many of the stories are simply ignored by the American media and I know nothing about them until I see them on AJE.

For instance, here are the headlines from today's AJE news at six:

1. New figures from the U.N in Geneva reveal the total killed in the Syrian war are higher than expected, almost 60,000.

2. Myanmar's government retracts earlier claims that it was not using helicopter gunships to attack rebels in the north of that country.

3. Peace talks are about to begin in the Central African Republic.

4. Four killed in U.S. drone strike in northwest Pakistan.

5. Venezuelan opposition demands answers to just how sick is Hugo Chavez.

6. Women are finding ways to help shop for clothes by using new technology.

Today's newscast was unusually heavy on war stories, especially those we don't usually hear about. Other stories following these included Clinton being released from the hospital, stock markets rallying after Congress passes "Fiscal Cliff" bill, stories on climate change in Africa causing food shortages and voter complaints about no choice in the coming Iranian elections.

The only thing that could be called commentary in any of this was a line in the Fiscal Cliff story, when the reporter said that the decreasing number of moderates in the two U.S. political parties was making compromises of this type more difficult.

None of this was exactly a ringing declaration of holy war on the infidels.

According to published reports, what's coming will at first be the normal Al Jazeera English feed, but later in the year there will be a new service called Al Jazeera America, with 60% content generated locally here in the U.S., with the rest coming from AJE.

There's no doubt that the antics pulled by AJ Arabic in its early days have hurt the channel as it matured, then started the English service. This was just about the only way it was ever going to make it into U.S. distribution.

I was one of those who went apoplectic when RT appeared on Dish. That move caused me to delay a move to Dish that was ultimately killed when DirecTV made some excellent programming changes. I've seen RT (as have many of you) and IMHO there is no question that each and every newscast has been slanted to show the U.S. in a negative light.

Certainly a marriage made in he...well, let's just say it's likely a very good cultural fit for both entities.

"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force." - Ayn Rand

Certainly a marriage made in he...well, let's just say it's likely a very good cultural fit for both entities.

Ah yes, an attempt at a witty cheap shot. Let's not have many news channels as we only need one, right? The messenger that speaks to your ear.

I think Current TV should announce the deal and get this channel up in HD, ASAP. When there is a giant minority that believes there is only one source of anything, it is an American duty to forcefully integrate them with a multitude of options that coincides with the majority.

I hope DirecTV makes this an HD gift in the new year, should the deal go through. The fact that it has a benign Arabic name - all the better.

TWC..............the Faux News of Cable. I HAD TWC before i switched to DirecTV. Thank you DirecTV for being "Fair and Balanced" and my only hope is Current TV will be in HIDEF so i can see all the wonderful people who speak the truth in all their glory.

The New York Times has added that the sales price is $500 million for Current, and that the deal includes Current's contracts to be carried by DirecTV, Comcast, Dish, Verizon and AT&T. Time Warner Cable put out the word that it's deal with Current has terminated, according to Stelter: "We are removing the service as quickly as possible."

I find it a good source of news when an important event is happening in the area but kind of bland otherwise. The announcers are all British and I'm a conservative but don't notice any slant either way. They carry programs about women and programs about relationships, fashion, etc. Lots of soccer scores too. They are nothing like the Arab version of Al Jazeera. I get it on Roku when I want it which is not very often.

I think that if we can have Wayne LaPierre advocate putting guns in nursery schools, the American people can deal with having pretty much ANY news channel available. If you don't care for the channel you can just press the channel up or down button. A free society is based upon the availablity of ALL points of view, including some that challenge our assumptions and biases. I don't watch Current TV myself, and likely won't watch AJE, but I strongly believe they bring value in the form of a different perspective (not to mention some really excellent journalism - something that is becoming scarce on US network newscasts).

...I've seen RT (as have many of you) and IMHO there is no question that each and every newscast has been slanted to show the U.S. in a negative light.

I simply don't find that with AJE.

I endorse those characterizations and will amplify them.

I live in suburban Maryland, where MHz networks carry twelve foreign news channels on two transmitters that have been given permission to share their base virtual channel number. Channels 30.1 through 30.6 are broadcast on UHF channel 24 by WNVT and channels 30.7 through 30.12 are broadcast on channel 30 by WNVU, located less centrally and having some coverage problems in the metropolitan Washington, DC. Russia Today is on 30.4, Aljazerra on 30.5 and incredibly, another Russia Today with Spanish audio and time staggered content is on 30.8.

I dropped cable a few months ago and get most of my news from those two channels. Well, in fairness to Aljazerra, I get most of my news there but much of my entertainment from Russia Today. Russia Today is basically a Communist Fox News channel. It really is funny, They have show after show featuring smarmy hosts who make snide comments about Capitalism and Democracy. Those of you who have never watched Russia Today may be surprised to learn that Russia Today is very popular among American Libertarians and Tea Party types. They are forever decrying "banksters" and "fiat money". Not that I have much respect for the economics profession - and I majored in economics - but I find it sad that so many people in America think that Economics is something you can collect rather than study and that you can learn economics from TV talk shows... or from AM radios.

Long before Putin held his recent press conference announcing its efforts to stop American adoptions of Russian children, the incidents leading up to that - one Russian adoptee left in a hot car, another locked in a basement, and "baby cam" footage of a baby sitter being really mean to an infant - were regularly rehashed on Russia Today and spliced together using the most effective Swiftboat editing techniques.

On the other hand Russia Today did host the "third party" presidential candidate debates, and really made the United States media look foolish for not having covered them.

Aljazerra does a great job covering natural disasters, unlike American news networks, which like to show their reporters getting blown around during hurricanes. And it really does give us reports of the human damage inflicted on Muslims that do not get reported in America. Is it fair and balanced? Nope, they don't intensively report on the incidents that triggered Israeli retaliations that they cover, but I don't think anyone can independently form a complete picture of what is going on in the middle eat just by watching American cable outlets, either.

The one sneaky thing they do is make sure that the guy who mutters at the end of a report that something is the United States fault is always British.

For those who are curious about what's happening outside the United States, AJE is a great channel. If it's really coming to DirecTV as a full time channel, that's awesome news for me! We've discussed AJE numerous times here, so it's good to see some actual movement in that area. The only way I'd be even more excited is if it were in HD, but alas it's not being produced in HD.

Glenn Beck tried to buy Current TV, but Al Gore told him he would only sell to "progressive' news outlets. There is nothing neutral or unbiased about Al Jazeera, which is why Gore sold it to them. Gore picked up $100 million profit on the deal, and closed the transaction on December 31st to avoid the tax increase.